Best WotC Books of 3.0/3.5?
- Thread starter Ogrork the Mighty
- Start date
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
My top 3:
Player's Guide to Faerûn
Stormwrack
Unearthed Arcana
Honorable Mention:
Cityscape
Player's Handbook II
Spell Compendium
Player's Guide to Faerûn
Stormwrack
Unearthed Arcana
Honorable Mention:
Cityscape
Player's Handbook II
Spell Compendium
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
I'll do this by topic:
General splat books: Magic Item Compendium and Player's Handbook II are the best I've read, but MIC is a lot better IMO. And even though I love the new classes in PHII, I'm highly annoyed that the party roles discussion leaves out the new classes.
OTOH, the MIC is practically part of my DMG now. PHII gets honorable mention.
Monster books: All the monster manuals are a lot of fun, FC1 and Lords of Madness are incredible, but Draconomicon takes the cake. I don't run dragon-focused campaigns, but the rules options mesh well with other new classes (for example, the dragon shaman). The sample dragons let you change dragons for appropriate CRs (I'm bumping up the end dragon in Forge of Fury). Not to mention the fact that it's every bit as good a read as any other WotC book I've flipped through.
Last book: many good choices, but I have to go with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. It's just how settings should be done.
General splat books: Magic Item Compendium and Player's Handbook II are the best I've read, but MIC is a lot better IMO. And even though I love the new classes in PHII, I'm highly annoyed that the party roles discussion leaves out the new classes.
OTOH, the MIC is practically part of my DMG now. PHII gets honorable mention.Monster books: All the monster manuals are a lot of fun, FC1 and Lords of Madness are incredible, but Draconomicon takes the cake. I don't run dragon-focused campaigns, but the rules options mesh well with other new classes (for example, the dragon shaman). The sample dragons let you change dragons for appropriate CRs (I'm bumping up the end dragon in Forge of Fury). Not to mention the fact that it's every bit as good a read as any other WotC book I've flipped through.
Last book: many good choices, but I have to go with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. It's just how settings should be done.
Greylock
First Post
Well, it's a hard question. There are a lot of books I am fond of, but only three I use with any kind of regularity, so I'll have to vote for:
1. The Players Handbook 3.5
2. The Dungeon Master's Guide 3.5
3. Unearthed Arcana.
All right then, here's an edit, seeing that the core books are excepted.
So, make that Unearthed Arcana, and..... But really, I count that as core.
Well. Fudge. Very hard to vote now. Maybe The Complete Warrior, Races of the Wild, Dragon Magic.
1. The Players Handbook 3.5
2. The Dungeon Master's Guide 3.5
3. Unearthed Arcana.
All right then, here's an edit, seeing that the core books are excepted.
So, make that Unearthed Arcana, and..... But really, I count that as core.
Well. Fudge. Very hard to vote now. Maybe The Complete Warrior, Races of the Wild, Dragon Magic.
Last edited:
ivocaliban
Explorer
Unearthed Arcana - Having a multitude of options is the greatest strength (and weakness) of 3.0/3.5e, but few books did it better than Unearthed Arcana. Races, bloodlines, Paragon classes, variant classes, weapon groups, backgrounds, alternative spellcasting...it's just fantastic.
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss - While I actually prefer the layout of its sister-tome, the FCII: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, demons are more immediately gratifying than devils. This book (along with the Demonomicon articles in Dragon magazine) really helped to bring demons to life for me. Because of it, demons and their cults started appearing more commonly in my campaigns. I particularly liked the addition of the obyriths, also.
Complete Champion - For someone who recently ran a six year Greyhawk campaign this book is a real treat. I understand why it received such harsh criticism for fans of Forgotten Realms or Eberron, but for me it couldn't have been much better. Although it doesn't fit the mold of the other "Complete" books (it really feels like it's more for a DM than a player) I've made extensive use of it already and surely will use the Affiliation building blocks to create my own church organizations.
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss - While I actually prefer the layout of its sister-tome, the FCII: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, demons are more immediately gratifying than devils. This book (along with the Demonomicon articles in Dragon magazine) really helped to bring demons to life for me. Because of it, demons and their cults started appearing more commonly in my campaigns. I particularly liked the addition of the obyriths, also.
Complete Champion - For someone who recently ran a six year Greyhawk campaign this book is a real treat. I understand why it received such harsh criticism for fans of Forgotten Realms or Eberron, but for me it couldn't have been much better. Although it doesn't fit the mold of the other "Complete" books (it really feels like it's more for a DM than a player) I've made extensive use of it already and surely will use the Affiliation building blocks to create my own church organizations.
1. Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords
To me, this is the _BEST_ 3.x book handsdown. I love the mechanics, the flavour and the fact that it really is relatively well-balanced straight out of the box. I love the way it makes melee as interesting and challenging as spellcasting.
2. Player's Handbook 2
This is what a splatbook should be. The only reason Bo9S is higher is my love of melee but this book has something for everything.
3. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
This is what a campaign setting book should be. Plain and simple, this is the BEST CS book EVER.
To me, this is the _BEST_ 3.x book handsdown. I love the mechanics, the flavour and the fact that it really is relatively well-balanced straight out of the box. I love the way it makes melee as interesting and challenging as spellcasting.
2. Player's Handbook 2
This is what a splatbook should be. The only reason Bo9S is higher is my love of melee but this book has something for everything.
3. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
This is what a campaign setting book should be. Plain and simple, this is the BEST CS book EVER.
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